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Tech Bytes: Videos to be streaming to console, TV
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Published: July 17, 2008
Netflix recently introduced a $99 converter box from Roku Inc. that lets people stream video straight to their TV sets. But soon, people with Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles won't need it.
Monday at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced a deal with Netflix that will let users watch streaming video of thousands of movies directly through their Xbox 360s.
Netflix offers more than 10,000 movies and TV shows through streaming video in addition to its rent-by-mail business, which has a catalog of more than 100,000 DVDs. The streaming video is free to people who already subscribe to Netflix's service.
The service will be available on the Xbox 360 this fall.
A sequel to the hit video game Rock Band is in the works, and it will include a new song from Guns N' Roses among its highlights.
The song, "Shackler's Revenge," is from GNR's next album, Chinese Democracy. Rock Band 2 will also include songs from Bob Dylan ("Tangled Up in Blue"), Survivor ("Eye of the Tiger"), AC/DC ("Let There Be Rock"), The Who ("Pinball Wizard") and dozens more. The game comes with more than 80 songs, with 20 more being released as free downloads later this fall.
The game will include online competition and will allow users to export tracks from the original Rock Band game and upgrade them into Rock Band 2.
Rock Band 2 will be released for the Xbox 360 game console in September, with PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii versions due out later this year.
Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California at San Diego are developing a free service that will help people track stolen laptops.
The service, Adeona, is named for a Roman goddess who helped lead children back to their parents.
"Here's how it works: A user downloads the free client software onto a laptop," according to a report at PCWorld.com. "That software then starts anonymously sending encrypted notes about the computer's whereabouts to servers on the Internet. If the laptop ever goes missing, the user downloads another program, enters a username and password, and then picks up this information from the servers."
The Mac version of the program will include a freeware program called isightcapture that uses inbuilt Web cams to take a picture of whoever is using the computer.
The Adeona team will give a technical presentation of their work later this month at the Usenix Security Symposium, which will be held July 28 to Aug. 1 in San Jose, Calif.
Worldwide revenue for consumer electronics will reach the $700 billion mark by 2009, according to a study by the Consumer Electronics Association and German-based market research firm GfK Group.
The United States accounts for 22 percent of global purchases, according to the report, followed by Western Europe at 16 percent and China at 15 percent. Among the devices that are expected to grow strongly in sales in the next year are portable navigation devices, laptop computers, mobile phones and smartphones, according to a report in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.
"Global revenue for LCD TVs will grow nearly 28 percent this year, resulting in more than 100 million units sold worldwide," according to the report. "LCD and plasma TVs will account for nearly 20 percent of worldwide consumer electronic sales this year."
■ Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.
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